March 3, 2011

Not long before the crowd of 100 protesters stormed the building (or was let in by the police), Meade got through the line and into the building. I've edited the video he shot, which shows the conditions of the hallways and even a men's room — and everything looks quite clean and undamaged. In the rotunda, the protesters have formed a circle and are discussing what they will do — and it seems they are aware that they are about to receive the judicial order to leave. Should they stay?

See this bullshit that conservatives like edutcher are pushing? $7.5M to clean up the Capitol??? They lie! And they will lie and contort the truth even worse if the protesters decide to disobey the court order to leave! Don't give them the opportunity! Don't be fodder for Limbaugh and his fucking ilk! LEAVE!

Yeah, Julius, it's evil to balance a budget so that people who are currently children are not burdened with promises by people now, and so that old people in future decades aren't relying on money that simply will not be there.

Marble is prone to staining and not generally used in applications like kitchens, as opposed to say granite. Its also relatively soft and easy to scratch. Of course the term is generic and there are a number of varities. Bottom line is its not good to treat it like a normal wall.

Marble, especially 100 year old marble, is porous, and easily damaged. It's not as strong as granite, and you have to be careful what you use to clean it. Chipped marble would have to be replaced, and the marble is getting more rare (ie what was used in it originally) so replacements are expensive. Any Sharpie grafitti will need removing, any tape ( even painters tape) left on for weeks will cause damage that may be hard to see but will need cleaning and such.

Then, once you get all the crap off it, it is dull and has to be shined/polished etc which is time consuming as all hell.

This ain't like marble countertops at home. This is a hundred year old National Historic place that MUST be restored. Part of the estimate came from the National Park Service, so while it may seem high, it might NOT be all that high. Specialty work is expensive.

Any tape leaves a residue on marble that must be carefully, and professionally removed. It is not just slapping another coat of paint on a wall.

Once that residue is removed, the marble must be carefully polished using a special polish and is best done by hand. And yes, marble become more porous with age, so the damage done by sticky tape happens very quickly.

Yes, the squatters should be required to leave or should be given three hots and a cot for a couple of weeks until a judge can get around to them. And the bill for restoring the Wisconsin State Capitol should be sent to Organizing for America and the unions. Why should the people of Wisconsin have to bear that expense?

This whole episode makes me ashamed of the people of Wisconsin, especially the police.

The DoA has until 3/8 to comply with the order. Gives them time to figure all this crap out. Looks like the last of the dirty homeless ones are being arrested, and the drunk driving former AG turned union boss is claiming "victory".

Obviously our host is enamored with this protest stuff from her youth, free speech and all. But, you know what they are protesting for is not admirable. It's robbing people of their future in order to continue to overcompensate a select group of people at the expense of others, many of whom are hardworking, and in need of the money being wasted. It's just plain wrong. They are trying to do something that will hurt a lot of innocent people financially in the long run. They are asking for fiscal disaster.

Sure they have the right, just like the Westboro Baptists, but that does not make me all warm and fuzzy about either. Not all protests are equal.

It's not protesting itself that's valuable. The value of free speech is the good it can do to keep people free. We may have to accept it all, even when it's wrong or evil speech, but don't confuse the means with the ends. History has it's share of young protester fighting to achieve bad or even evil results, and I wish they would have been told so by the good people around them at the time.

By the way, 3M recommends ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape for Multi-Surfaces – 2090 for use on marble.

Excellent advice for the next protest; a little late for this one.

Also, a lot of the participants aren't going to hear this advice from you (I doubt many of them hang out here), so you need to find a way to spread the word to a bunch of individuals who make their own signs (for the most part) and likely bring their own tape. That blue stuff's not something most people have lying around, so they're liable to grab whatever they have at hand.

The bathrooms look to be in surprisingly good shape, which leads me to believe that the ceiling in the rotunda has survived this episode as well.Not that those filthy hippies could piss that high up if they tried.

The substance for the concern is that the capitol building is on the national historic registry for several reasons, including the decore. Anyone who doesn't value the importance of a historical site is an idiot, IMHO.

You should see how violently anal conservatives get about coasters. I heard William F. Buckley once shot a dude dead in his living room for putting down an Iced Tea on his coffee table without anything underneath...

I'd like to point out that for years and years, the coal-fired Charter Street Heating Plant and the Capitol Heat and Power Plant have been putting out tons of SO2 and NOx, which in the presence of water vapor easily becomes marble-etching sulfuric acid.

So before making the protesters pay up, demonstrate that they made the marble worse than it was before they arrived.

MLS: We're talking about leaving our kids a big debt to pay. Some two trillion dollars of the debt went to bail out the bankers and to try to recover from the damage they called. So I would say I'm on topic.

But how do we get our money back from the investment bankers who all but destroyed our economy?

Hmm. Good question. How about this. For every dollar they contribute to Obama's next presidential campaign, they have to contribute a matching dollar to the US Treasury? That should about bring us back to balance, should it not?

A bunch of kids got together and are really messy throwing their stuff all over the place and making a mess and leaving the place looking like a tornado hit. They are pigs and they are leaving their used Kotex pads all over the place.

They have turned the Wisconsin State Capital into the "Jersey Shore" house.

OTOH, I think the idea of maintaining the exercise of democracy in some sort of pristine state is a metaphor. A metaphor for something that doesn't exist.

Hell, maybe next time we'll occupy the Guggenheim. Glue some posters to the Kandinskys. It's all just one big crap shoot anyhoo. Anything goes in the name of democracy? What's that? We broke a few eggs? All part of the plan.

Get over yourselves already. Get a big fucking hose and wash it down like they do the fuckin West Fourth St Subway stop every night. So a couple of homeless people get washed out of the station. They can use the bath for crying out loud.

I just ran into a waitress in Philadelphia who thought that the long lines of text tattooed across both clavicles, from shoulder to shoulder, prominently displayed on her exposed neckline, 4 inches above the collar of whatever shirt she was wearing, was too personal a message to even reveal what work it came from.

How do you know it was from some work, then? I assume that means a song or poem or book? Was it clearly a quotation? Or did she admit where it came from in general, but then demur on specifics?

Ritmo said.....I just ran into a waitress in Philadelphia who thought that the long lines of text tattooed across both clavicles, from shoulder to shoulder, prominently displayed on her exposed neckline, 4 inches above the collar of whatever shirt she was wearing, was too personal a message to even reveal what work it came from

That reminds me when Marcus Camby was on the Knicks and he got this big tatoo all over body with chinese characters that he thought was an ancient chinese proverb.

Also, we have about a dozen palm trees all around ther Capitol, after Fox News aired deceitful footage falsely alleging violence in Madison - WITH PALM TREES IN THE BACKGROUND!

Which just goes to show that you never actually saw the clip you are alleging.

See, the day that was aired, there were union protests in other places besides Wisconsin. Fox, like other networks, covered those protests. While Fox was discussing/reporting on the union protests occurring in other places, they showed footage from those protests in other places.

Bullshit. They did not storm, they entered - jubilantly after Scott Walker's EXPENSIVE police state was rolled back.

The people in a free society can do that sort of thing.

And the last protestors have peacefully left. A few perhaps who will exercise civil disobedience. There are serious issues afoot and I praise them.

We won freedom and the right wing sneers. We have: No more escorts to walk through halls. No more special access for friends, lobbyists of Republicans. No more long waits to enter. Republican Party, meet the rule of law. The freedom to rally in the peoples' house once again.

I'll leave it at that. Just thought it was weird to feel that something that prominently displayed had a provenance too personal to explain

Reminds me of Goths (and other rebellious youth before them) who dress and style outrageously so that they can shock other people and laugh about how judgmental those people are -- and then get all upset when those people judge them. Especially when those people are potential employers.

We won freedom and the right wing sneers. We have:No more escorts to walk through halls.No more special access for friends, lobbyists of Republicans.No more long waits to enter.Republican Party, meet the rule of law.The freedom to rally in the peoples' house once again.

Hmmm...

The decision was a partial victory for protesters, because Albert determined that the policy restricting public access violated constitutional rights and ordered the state to re-open the Capitol with greater public access by 8 a.m. Monday.

Although it was not detailed in his written order, the judge issued an oral order in court allowing the administration to institute permitting procedures that limit the times and locations where rallies can be held in the Capitol.

Actually, what it sounds like is you can be in there, but you can't be douchebags and rally without permits, and you can't be using drums, vulvazulas, and be obnoxious assholes anymore.

It's a movie about a building in Madison Wisconsin. There's a bunch of people inside and they've been in there for a long time. They seem to be talking about how they're going to get out.

They have a lot of reading material in there, but it's all rather monotonous and the people are starting to get bored. Plus you have to be kind of tall to read it because it's all taped up on the walls and it gets higher and higher. So if you're a little kid then just forget it. They kept the place fairly clean and everybody seems polite. Except sometimes when apparently they were loud and banged on rudimentary instruments and chanted noisily, but that part is not in this film.

My favorite part is the boxes of OTHER CLOTHES, GLOVES AND MITTENS, SCARVES, HATS. It makes you wonder how people lost them and it makes you feel a little bit sorry for all those cold hands and heads and necks and other parts. I am very concerned about the people who lost all those items.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Rodney King beating that led to the most recent episode of The L.A. Riots.

You pussy-ass Cheeseheads didn't even burn down a single building or kill anyone. I really can't take your bitchin' seriously without a little better effort than this. Some unspent 22s, and used tampons? Isn't that backwards? Is that all you got? For God's sake go home. Mom's making you some soup.

I've come the painful realization that I've been psychologically conditioned by commenter avatars. I've noticed a small but undeniable spasm of revulsion shudder through my body whenever I see pictures of William F. Buckley smiling, George W. Bush gesturing with his hand, the Brazilian flag, grey human silhouettes against white backgrounds, black Labradors sitting ass-to-ass, Rita Hayworth, Voltaire... Perhaps it's all part of some nefarious psychological experiment, like with Beethoven's music in "A Clockwork Orange". Is there a way to undo this terrible mental damage, to sever the connections that have been made between benign, pleasant worthies and painful, dull, irritating and stupid internet entities?

Come on, Palladian. I know that you're not all that adept at fashion either, being more of a design guy. But even you'd have to admit that Chip Ahoy is pulling off the impossible - he's making Carson Kressley look good and sullying the reputation of gay mens' fashion sensibilities.

Amazing with billions in backing that Walker couldn't find something better than the Low Rent a Keystone Cop operation he has working for him now. The state has turned on him, recalls in the works, and Fat Boy in NJ now says he loooooooooves him some collective bargaining! Let me out of my cage!!!

Now let's see if the conservatomanics like Walker are as serious with regard to cutting spending as they claim to be... I suggest they start with the War on Drugs... declare that it is "stupid" and find y'er tigerblood and stop spending $$$ on the persecution of y'er fell'er citizens. After all, if states like Wisconsin can't afford teachers' unions, how can they possibly afford to prosecute and jail people for ingesting unpopular substances?

Then the national conservatomaniacs can also stop spending money on their overseas ventures. After all, Wikileaks has done ten times more to spread democracy and Western values throughout the non-Western world than G. W. Bush ever did... and Bush had eight years, while Team Assange had less than half that time! So stop wasting OUR money on the military and on foreign countries and on defense contractors! Waste! Waste! Waste!

About the whole kotex mess....did anyone take a camera in or visit the women's restroom? I have daughters and I have to say.....visiting their rooms at camp was quite an experience...it was disgusting...and none of them minded who saw it!

Former law student....if you want some of that investment banker cash....either go get a job there or hit up your hero Obama for all the campaign contributions he got from them...or go work alongside many of them in the many government Depts they've been given jobs at...

Sheen is no Keith Richards--not even close. Sheen is just addicted to the fleeting euphoria that come with his spurts of creativity. It will be sad when the well runs dry, or swells to unbearable pain.

Sheen is so much more energetic, poetic and creative in his outrageousness. Richards is playing a different game, and it's definitely a less entertaining one.

I never watched, much less cheered on the lame-ass shows that brought Sheen access to his drug of choice and the lifestyle accompanying it. In fact when I look back on it, I'm not even sure that he's all that great an actor.

I never watched, much less cheered on the lame-ass shows that brought Sheen access to his drug of choice and the lifestyle accompanying it. In fact when I look back on it, I'm not even sure that he's all that great an actor.

For one thing, CS owes everything to his father, unlike KR.

OMG, I just found the most amazing photograph of little Jonny Erpenbach as an 11th grader in an old yearbook of mine. Should I post it? Naw, I'd hate that if somebody did that to me.

I've always believed that mathematics is a good way to become truly smarter. So, I give this math problem to you dumb leftists:

Add up all the money Wisconsin will spend each year on illegal drugs for the next 10 years. This we will call A.

Now add up all the money it will spend on unfunded pensions, overpaying public servants, providing free health care and retirement funding and other luxurious benefits for public servants. This we will call B.

Julis, Sixteen Candles sez that if National Review favored a position, all Republicans fell in line and made it law!

There may not be much support for ending the drug war, but I'd wager there's more on the right than there is on the left. I'd say that most conservatives I know really don't care if you toke up; just don't come back demanding a handout because of your own poor choices.

And I always thought that using weasel words like "unfunded" and "overpaying" only in reference to the things you personally think shouldn't be paid for or funded (as opposed to tax breaks and other graft) were a sign of arguing in bad faith.

But let's not let political reality, as confirmed by even a Rasmussen poll, get in the way of Sixteen Candles' faith.

Alpha -- I know. The state is also taking hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers each year and diverting the funds for the retirement and health care of payroll cronies. Also giving them salaries well above what they are worth. Thousands of these cronies work six-hour days and have 20 hours a year of vacation.

Let's protest, you and me. Let's stop this absurd government overreach by these fascist pinheads.

Lets say you are a legislator.. Don't you know how to enter the capitol after hours? under special circumstances like a legislative standoff?

Sure.. After a court order saying people should only be granted access during regular hours.. you rush the door while officers are obviously guarding the entrance (why else would there be so many officers around a door?)

Instead of calmly identifying yourself b4 seeking entrance, the way the situation calls for, you don't do any of that and you rush to the door.. while conveniently a news camera just happens to be filming.